Dark redesign — design spec (2026-07-06)

Context

Charlie’s verdict on the 2026-07-05 redesign: too purple; palette and structure boring. Direction chosen by Charlie before delegating overnight: drop purple entirely, dark & atmospheric. Remaining decisions delegated; hard requirement: nothing may read as AI-generated (no slop tropes, no generic copy — all existing first-person content kept verbatim).

Decisions

• Palette: warm near-black #131110, bone ink #ece7df, body #b8b1a6, muted #8f887c, copper accent #d99a5b. All ≥4.5:1 on the ground (computed, not eyeballed). Rationale: “evening lab” — dark without the electric-blue dev-portfolio reflex.
• Typography: Schibsted Grotesk retained (committed identity; changing fonts was not the complaint).
• Structure: left-rail grammar (10.5rem label/meta rail + content column, 58rem frame) on home, research, and blog list; 44rem reading column for posts. Replaces the uniform stacked column that read as boring.
• Signature: assets/js/suspension.js — a quiet canvas suspension behind the home hero (polydisperse particles, copper tracers; slow cursor yields, fast cursor jams — shear thickening). Reduced-motion → static frame; hidden tab → paused.
• Kept: all copy, page inventory, password gate, Minimal Mistakes bones.

Verification

SCSS compiled clean via npx sass; all four pages screenshot-verified at 1440px and 620px by splicing compiled CSS into live HTML shells (headless Chrome, real-time mode — see DESIGN.md “Build & verify” for the virtual-time-budget/rAF gotcha this surfaced). Full detail: DESIGN.md (system) and PRODUCT.md (brand) at repo root.